Samuel Helfont joins host Ron Granieri to discuss his book, The Iraq Wars: A Very Short Introduction, which covers the Gulf War of 1991, the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and subsequent years of civil war and insurgency, and the campaign against the Islamic State that began in 2014. Helfont argues that to understand any of these three distinct conflicts, they must be understood in relation to each other as well as the periods in between. Their discussion highlights the friction between policy and strategy, noting that while regime change became the de facto U.S. goal as early as the 1990s, the strategies employed at the time were never equipped to achieve it. Ultimately, they reflect on the heavy cost of these wars, the difficulty of maintaining peace with insufficient troop levels, and the complex, ongoing legacy that continues to shape global politics today.
These [wars] are all connected in one giant war… looking at one in isolation isn’t as helpful as seeing them as a broader project.
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Samuel Helfont is an Associate Professor of Strategy and Policy in the Naval War College program at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He is a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia and the author of Iraq against the World: Saddam, America, and the Post-Cold War Order (Oxford University Press, 2023) and The Iraq Wars: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2025).
Ron Granieri is Professor of History and the Chair of the Department of National Security and Strategy at the U.S. Army War College and the Editor of A BETTER PEACE.
The views expressed in this presentation are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Army War College, U.S. Army, or Department of War.
Photo Description: Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney converses with COL. Alton Whitby, commander, 37th Tactical Fighter Wing, and Brig. GEN. Abdul Aziz Bin Khalid Al-Sudairi, commander of Joint Forces, Saudi Arabia, as he and GEN. Colin Powell, chairman, Joint Chiefs of STAFF, walk along the airfield following their arrival for a conference. The men will be discussing U.S. military intervention against Iraq during Operation Desert Storm. 6 February, 1991
Photo Credit: TSGT Rose Reynolds
